Any discussion of the prior art throughout this specification is not an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of the common general knowledge in the field.
A number of earlier inventions have dealt with the problem of putting on socks or stockings:—see for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,774, U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,720, U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,289 and Canadian Patent Application 2641368. However, none of these devices can be used for putting on trousers or underwear or incontinence pants:—they function only for socks or stockings.
US Patent Application 2009/0039118 relates to a device for putting on underwear or trousers, and essentially consists of a length of cord, the free ends of which carry grippers which are secured to the waistband of the garment to be pulled on. The user attaches the grippers to the waistband and then, while sitting, manoeuvres his feet into the leg holes and pulls on the cord to draw the garment up his legs until he can grip the waistband himself. A device of this type is likely to be suitable only for relatively loose fitting garments, because pulling a tight fitting garment (such as incontinence pants) in this way would require an extremely strong grip on the waistband, and put a great deal of strain on the waistband; damage to the pants would be likely to result. Another potential problem is that a person using this device has to keep guiding their legs through the leg holes down the full length of the garment, on both sides simultaneously, and raising both legs to do this can be difficult for a person with limited flexibility.